Urge Surfing

MINDFULNESS TECHNIQUE

Urge
surfing is a great mindfulness relapse prevdention technique developed by Alan Marlatt to use when you
are in the middle of an urge to regain control of your addictive
behaviour. With surfing you approach those destructive feelings and thoughts
from a very different standpoint and instead of fighting
them you accept them, fully experience them but do so from a point of calm distance using a simple mindfulness technique to ride out
those destructive feelings.

URGES WILL NEVER HARM YOU

Marlett suggests that you should start by knowing that urges rarely last long and will themselves never harm you, they last from a few minutes up to 30
minutes maximum. The frequency and intensity of an urge is dependent on what happens
during and after an urge to use. If you respond to the urge to use, then like Instant Gratification, you
are reinforcing that thought and behaviour pattern and there will be more
frequent and more intense urge experiences that follow. So instead of acting on an urge, working through an urge
to use, will result in the urge diminishing and further urges being less frequent. From this starting point you have an understanding that not acting on an urge is the way forward to full recovery. How you respond to an urge is key to the urge surfing technique which makes it very different to other relapse prevention techniques.

One way people respond to urges is to fight it and
disrupt the pattern of thinking, which is the focus of the urge. This may involve having an internal battle between what you want to do emotionally, to change how you feel and against the consequences of using, less money, lapse, failure, etc. Other
techniques may involve distraction, where you occupy yourself with
housework, chatting to others, ultimately by doing something else.

GO WITH THE FLOW

Urge
surfing
is a great technique to support an addict because it paradoxically takes
the
power of the urge away by just going with the flow and letting the urge
take its course. The underlying
premise of the surfing technique is that the more you try to fight an
urge the
more you feed it and give it power. Instead of fighting it, the person
steps
back from the event and just observes the effect, noting how it is
impacting on
the thoughts and feelings of the person.

GO URGE SURFING AND TAKE CONTROL

The process of surfing involves first asking if
urges have ever passed, as the important message to take from this is that
urges do not have to be acted upon. During an urge, notice all the thoughts and
feelings and by stepping back from them, experiencing them as an observer,
resulting in the person being more relaxed, controlled and powerful. Each
thought is just a thought and like all thoughts it will pass to be replaced by
other thoughts. By gently bringing your attention back to your own breathing
you will further support the passing of these thoughts. By directing your
thoughts to your physical sensations you are meeting the urge as it passes
through you, without being controlled by it. Acceptance is the key to recovery, so go
surfing.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHILST URGE SURFING?

During an Urge notice:

how you are feeling

how your breathing is changing from before

notice feeling alive and aware of all your senses

how your hands are

how your thoughts are observe them and feel them fully express them, to others and to yourself

fully immerse yourself in these sensations notice each wave of the urge

notice how it moves

how it ebbs and flows

how it peaks and how it gently leaves to be replaced by a soothing calmness of a more intense relaxation

Finally, notice how each urge is one less urge that you will ever experience

Each urge is the body and the mind recovering in unison repairing reconnecting to a life without urges and triggers, allowing new sensations, to emerge as those weakening urges are replaced by equally interesting harmless sensations

Relapse prevention tools are many and varied but you should learn and practise as many as you can as there will be times when one technique will be better than another. The more that you learn the less you rely on luck and hope. No matter what you are trying to change there are scientifically proven ways to get the result you want but as people are all different the best approach for each person is different. The more you know the more choices you have. Learn and practise urge surfing but add it to a range of relapse prevention tools. You don't have to choose to give up so choose success. Learn all the other relapse prevention techniques in this section and enjoy your success.